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commence, conceal, avoid,
etc [15]. It is easy to notice that the difference between them is stylistic: French
loans are of a more literary, formal character.
Apart from individual words, the origin of a few prepositions and conjunctions can be tracked to
French e.g.
because of
,
despite, in case
. According to C. M. Millward [11, p.196], they came into the
language as separate nouns and verbs and began to perform new functions after they had been
completely naturalized. For instance, the preposition
despite
was originally a noun (< OF
despit
), first
recorded in the 13
th
c.; the phrase
in despite of,
a loan-translation of Old French
en despit de
“in contempt
of” appeared in the late 13
th
c., and the preposition itself did not appear until the early 15
th
c. Obviously,
some collocations and expressions, such as
beforehand
(Fr.
avant la main
),
condemn to death
(Fr.
condemner
à mort
),
without fail
(Fr.
sans faille
),
the hue and cry
(Fr.
le cri et le hu
) [9, p. 57], were likewise borrowed as
separate words and then joined to form phrases on the French model.
When the French loanwords first entered the English language, they retained their original stress on
the ultimate or penultimate syllable, e.g. ME
coráge, natúre, vertú, comfortáble
(MoE
courage, nature, virtue,
comfortable
). In the course of time the word stress in most cases was shifted closer to the beginning of
the word according to the characteristic features of the native English accentuation [2, p. 189]; but the
shift was not immediate. In the works of poetry the French stress was preserved up to the
15
th
century [1, p. 190].
French words were quickly assimilated into English vocabulary and used for coining new words
(merging with English elements as well), e.g. the adjective
gentle
was borrowed from French in 1225
and added to the English noun to make
gentlewoman
(1230), and then
gentleman, gentleness
and
gently
[4, p. 166]. Similarly the noun
faith
(1250) within a century produced the derivatives
faithless,
faithful, faithfully
, and
faithfulness
[4, p. 166]
.
French affixes – prefixes (
dis-, re-, en-)
and suffixes (
-able, -
ible, -ance, -ence, -ment, -let, -age, -ee)
that forced their way into the English language, also contributed to
the formation of new words, e.g.
peerage, avoidance, grantee
(French root plus French suffix). Later on
they came to be used with native Germanic roots, such as the word
hindrance
(1400-1450)
,
formed from
the OE verb
hinder
plus the suffix
-ance
that was taken from the words of French origin and used to
form similar nouns from native verbs [12, p. 257]. The native affixes were joined to foreign roots as well,
e.g.
charming
(1250-1300) (French root plus the native English suffix).
Considering the number of borrowed words and the overall changes in the vocabulary, we cannot
deny the enormous influence of French on the Middle English vocabulary. This great influx of French
words certainly would never have occurred without the Conquest. But to come to the right conclusions,
we have to consider some more points. According to the Russian linguists Tatyana Rastorgueva and
Boris Khaimovich, about 80 or 85% of the native OE vocabulary went out of use over the centuries due
to the borrowings from French and Latin [2, 8]. They were either lost or replaced as a result of the
rivalry of synonyms. However, according to another source, namely
The Cambridge History of the English
Language
, the lexicon of Early Middle English still consisted of 91.5% of English origin; in later Middle
English this figure had fallen to 78.8% [5, p. 432]. The core of the matter probably lies in the extent of
penetration of French words into different semantic areas of the vocabulary. The closer we come to
lower social ranks, the fewer French words we have [1, p. 190]. Some aspects of English life remained
practically untouched by French loanwords, such as shipping and seafaring, farming and agriculture,
e.g. the words
acre, field, hedge, furrow, sow, reap, harvest, plough, shovel, spade, rake, seed, wheat, barley, corn,
26
L.M. Ikalyuk, U.T. Tatsakovych
beans, oats, grass, hay duck, sheep, hen, goose
, etc. are derived from Old English [11, p. 196]. Besides, a
number of French borrowings in ME were words that French originally borrowed from Germanic, e.g.
ME
werre
“war” < Gc.
werra
; ME
waiten
“to wait” < Gc.
wahten
; ME
gardin
“garden” < Gc.
garto
,
etc [1, p. 189]. French
soup
is a doublet of native English
sop,
and
grape
is a doublet of native
grapple
[11, p. 197]; more doublets include
catch
and
chase
,
warden
and
guardian
,
wage
and
gage
. Similarly,
some proper names adopted by the English from French are of Germanic origin, e.g.
Geoffrey <
Gc
.
Gaufrid; Richard <
Gc.
Rikhard; William <
Gc.
Wilihelm; Henry <
Gc.
Heinric
[1, p. 190], and others. Finally,
it is worth noting that new words coined on the British soil out of native roots and the morphemes of
foreign origin should not be treated as borrowings, but as specifically English words [2, p. 298].
Therefore, though transference of French words was very considerable, it does not mean, however, that
we should look at the native element in English as insignificant. The views of the Russian linguists
should obviously be taken into consideration when we refer to semantic spheres related to the domains
of government, law, religion, military service, etc., as probably more than half of the native OE
vocabulary was ousted from there. As for the words frequently used by common people, most of them
continued to be those of Germanic origin. So taking everything into account, we shall agree with the
opinion given in
The Cambridge History
of the English Language.
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